Truffles are chocolate based confections that are filled with a creamy ganache and topped with cocoa powder, hard shell chocolate, icing, chopped nuts, or drizzled chocolate. There are three main types of truffles which vary in their preparation slightly: American, European, and Swiss.

French Patissiere Louis Dufour invented the chocolate truffle in Chambery, France in 1895. The chocolate covered ganache balls looked a lot like black mushroom truffles that grew deep in the forest, so the confections were named after them.

A few years later, Antoine Dufour opened the Prestat Chocolate Shop in London, which is credited for the popularization of chocolate truffles in the UK and beyond.